Sometimes routine maintenance pays sweeping dividends.
Earlier this year City of Lathrop staffers discovered a potential failure in an 84-inch storm drain pipe in the Crossroads Business Park system – which includes the majority of the city’s large industrial warehouse buildings.
After spending $30,000 with Teichert Construction to clean and inspect the existing pipe and to get a better understanding of how big the problem was, Teichert – along with city staff – concluded that almost 200-feet of the massive pipe was damaged and needed to be replaced.
On Monday, the Lathrop City Council approved spending the $69,766 available in the Crossroads Storm Drain Capital Replacement Fund and allocated an additional $209,734 from general fund reserves to cover the $279,500 cost of replacing the large section.
Failure of the pipe, had it not been detected during routine maintenance, could have put the entire Crossroads Business Park – which is home to the Tesla manufacturing facility as well as a host of other light-industrial warehouse operations – at risk, and caused “significant” damage to the roadway and other public utilities located around the pipe itself.
An entire breakdown of the equipment and materials necessary for the repair, which is expected to begin promptly, was included with the documents that the council viewed prior to Monday’s meeting.
Because of the scope of the project and the public safety ramifications associated with it, the emergency declaration – which circumvents the traditional bid process for government contracts – was requested by city staff and required the ratification of the council to proceed.
The item was included on the consent calendar of the council’s approval.
After facing a budget shortfall just a decade ago of more than $16 million, at the end of this fiscal year the City of Lathrop expects to have more than $6.5 million in unrestricted general fund reserves. While other public improvement projects like street lights are eligible for payment from the city’s Measure C sales tax fund, this particular project did not qualify for payment from that source.

To contact reporter Jason Campbell email jcampbell@mantecabulletin.com or call 209.249.3544.